The Quality of Justice
by jtav
Summary: "Sometimes it requires the kind of fight you can win with your glove. And sometimes it requires a fight with yourself."The United Republic wants to take Kuvira's bending and they want Asami's help.


Korra slammed the door hard enough to rattle the porcelain figures Wu had bought Asami for Founders' Day. Asami looked up from plans for a new hospital to replace one that the Colossus had destroyed. Korra's eyes glowed like blue fire, terrible and beautiful in her fury, and her breaths were deep and harsh. Asami frowned. Korra had never liked dealing with Raiko, but Asami hadn't seen her this angry since Unalaq had invaded.

She rose and drew Korra into an embrace. Korra relaxed slightly and sighed into the crook of Asami's neck as Asami ran her hands over Korra's back and arms. Asami pressed a light kiss to Korra's temple. She still wasn't quite used to this; Korra not only back in her life but in her arms. The one bright spot during the last few months. Asami intended to keep it burning brightly for as long as she could. "Want to talk about it?"

Korra stiffened and pulled back slightly. Anger had been replaced by concern. "It's a Kuvira thing."

Kuvira. The Great Uniter. The Repentant Conqueror. Her father's killer. _Murderer_ , whispered a dark part of her mind that seemed to grow louder with each of Korra's weekly visits to the prison. Asami tried her best not to think of her at all because thoughts of Kuvira led inevitably to the image of a crushed hummingbird suit seared into her brain. But not thinking of her was an impossibility when every newspaper in the city chronicled the ongoing negotiation over where she should be tried and for what. Every state in the Earth Kingdom wanted a chance to mete vengeance out to their one-time dictator and Raiko seemed positively eager to lock her up for war crimes. Asami couldn't say she blamed him.

Asami shook her head. The important thing right now was that Korra was furious and needed to vent. "Talk to me."

"All right." Korra sucked in a breath and her voice trembled with the effort of keeping it even. "Raiko asked me to take her bending. I told him I'd rather set him on fire and that if he ever asked me again, I'd offer a demonstration."

"Take her bending?" Asami repeated. She understood the words, but her mind was like rusty gears. When she thought of bending removal, it conjured terror and bloodthirstiness of the Equalist revolution Row after row of terrified people waiting for the twist of Amon's fingers as punishment for the crime of doing what others could not. Aang might have been capable of it, but the power had never seemed to suit Korra. Raiko might as well have asked her to bloodbend. "Why would he ask you that?"

"Because he's a coward, that's why." Korra tossed herself into the chair opposite the desk. "Zaofu and Ba Sing Se have the death penalty. The United Republic doesn't, but he wants the feather in his cap being the one to bring Kuvira to justice. And since bending removal has been an alternative to death before—"

"He wants you to do it again." She thought of Kuvira without the power to move earth or shape metal. Would it have made a difference? For all Baatar and Varrick's technical genius, the troops had followed Kuvira. Would they have followed her if she hadn't been able to defeat bandits and marauders without breaking a sweat? Would she have expended too many resources to make the invasion of the United Republic feasible? Was there anything that could have stopped her father's death?

"I won't. I can't. After having it done to me…" Korra shuddered. "Aang should have just killed Ozai and Yakone. Same difference. I can still feel Amon's fingers on me. The way everything just stopped. It's not like having your bones broken or even the poison. He took part of me. It's—it's evil, Asami."

Asami touched Korra's hand. "It's all right, sweetie. He can't make you."

"I know what she did to your dad, but it's just evil and it's not like she's Yakone and I mean it's not like we've never put a metalbender in prison before and—"

Asami put a finger to Korra's lips. "It's all right." She forced a smile. "We'll go out for drinks once I'm done here. Maybe more than drinks afterwards."

But as Asami corrected the design of the emergency care wing, the whispers in her head grew louder. _Kuvira was a tyrant. You've seen the photographs of the internment camps. She's hardly better than Ozai._

"She didn't try to burn down the world," Asami muttered. "She stopped on her own. That makes a difference."

 _No it doesn't. She killed your father. Not in self-defense or in defense of some just cause but because she wanted to conquer your home. The loss of her bending would be justice. It is a gift, but gifts can be squandered. She lost the power to rule. Your father lost his fortune. Entirely just. Is bending any different? She deserves every ounce of suffering the world can inflict._

Asami rubbed her temples. She was exhausted, talking to herself. But she was also better than that dark part of her whispering in her ear. She had gotten good at ignoring it over the years. At first it had been the petty temptations of childhood: cheating on tests, stealing an extra dessert. But she remembered her father handing her the glove for the first time. And for a moment, she had almost accepted his offer. But she hadn't. Because he was wrong. She had destroyed her relationship with her father, been driven into hiding, forced to eat food that she wouldn't feed to Pabu. All for the sake of not giving into hatred and cowardice. "And I'm not going to start now."

 _And so the murderer escapes her just desserts. Just as the Agni Kai did._

"Not the same." Kuvira would get justice. When she finally went to trial somewhere, she would spend the rest of her life in prison, if she wasn't executed outright. Though Korra probably wouldn't let that happen. She saw Kuvira as a dark reflection of herself, all of her virtues exaggerated until they became vices. Asami could imagine Korra's eyes blazing once again as she took on Raiko, Suyin, or whoever else wanted to deliver an unjust punishment. "What will happen will happen."

She closed her eyes and could almost feel the shift of the seat under her as she was ejected from the hummingbird. The silent scream that ripped through her throat as she watched someone she loved die again. The horrible choking helplessness of it. Her father dead. _Murdered. Just like your mother_.

"Not the same," she repeated, frantically. "And anyway there's nothing I can do."

There was a knock at the door. "A Mr. Rei is here to see you," her assistant said. "He says he's from the prosecutor's office."

"Show him in." The years since her father's imprisonment had been blissfully free of contact with the courts, but she still remembered the barrage of questions from people who didn't care about Team Avatar and were convinced she had to share her father's bigotry. Or worse, they knew she didn't but also knew that smearing her was a path to their own success.

Rei was a tall, thin man whose suit was at least a decade out of date. His hair was slightly messy, and his clothing was rumpled. He carried a large, battered suitcase. He looked more like a professor than a prosecutor and smiled when he saw her. A real smile that reached not only his eyes that seemed to take over his whole face. "Well, well, if it isn't little Asami all grown up."

Asami blinked. "I'm sorry."

"You don't remember me. I suppose it has been a long time." He chuckled softly. "I used to work in Legal. Your mother would bring you by the office and you would beg me for sweets."

"Oh." Dim flickers of memory illuminated her mind. Too many candies stuffed in her mouth. Her mother laughing. Her father laughing and slipping her another one. Marveling at the shininess of the mahogany desks, so unlike the battered ones of the workshop. How happy and safe and warm everything seemed. "Those were good years."

"Yes, they were. I was sorry to hear about Hiroshi. He was a good man before he let himself get mixed up with the Equalists."

"Yes, he was," Asami said with practiced ease. Concerned well-wishers were another thing she was still getting used to. People who didn't know whether to treat her father as a monster or a hero. "Was there something you wanted?"

Rei's smile faded. "I'm assisting with the Kuvira case. I'm sure you've heard of the argument Raiko and Korra were having."

Asami's eyes narrowed. Some things never changed. Lawyers always wanted something from her. "I'm not going to persuade Korra to take Kuvira's bending."

"I'm not seeking the Avatar's permission. I'm seeking yours." He opened the briefcase and removed a vial of clear liquid. "Your father began working on this just after the man who killed your mother was arrested. It's a toxin synthesized from several plants native to the Earth Kingdom. When prepared in just the right way and injected into the chakra points, this can block bending. Indefinitely."

"What?" Asami's mind felt sluggish again. Her father had had the power to take bending all this time? No. They couldn't be right. "If he could do something like that, why join the Equalists? He wouldn't have needed Amon."

"It was prohibitively expensive to produce. He couldn't remove the bending of more than four or five people without bankrupting himself. Amon was a more feasible alternative for giving him the world he wanted. Madness. I discovered records of the toxin when I was going through some old files. I had to see for myself. So, while you were on your vacation, I had one of your security staff let me look around." He tapped the vial. "That was what I found."

"So, you trespassed and stole from me."

"Only to confirm a hypothesis." He leaned forward in his chair. "With this, the court could pass sentence of removal of bending without the Avatar's involvement. It would allow us to prosecute Kuvira in a way that would minimize blowback from the other nations."

"And Raiko gets his vengeance without having to enact the death penalty."

"There isn't the political will for that and he knows it. But think of this as justice and not vengeance. Thousands of people locked up in those internment camps. Hundreds of them died from malnutrition and overwork. Just locking her up isn't enough. If I could set her on fire I would." His voice cracked. "And Hiroshi was just starting to get his life back together. I couldn't do anything for Yasuko. But maybe I can do something for him. We both can."

"Me?" Realization dawned. "My father created this before he joined the Equalists. Which means that the rights to this fall to me. You need my permission to take Kuvira's bending."

"Not necessarily. There is a possibility that the courts would rule that the state has a compelling interest in seizing the chemicals." He swallowed. "But a lawsuit would be a… complicating factor I'm sure that we would all rather avoid. All you have to do is let us proceed."

"Korra is going to be furious with you. She hates the idea of someone losing their bending."

"I'm aware of Avatar Korra's feelings on the matter. I'd never ask someone to violate their conscience. But her own predecessor came to a very different conclusion. It's a subject people of good will can disagree on, and my conscience is telling me Kuvira deserves everything we can throw at her." He stapled his fingers. "Besides, are you really willing to fight a court battle that's going to be long, expensive, and very public for the sake of the woman who killed your father? Think about that, Asami. It's not exactly the Equalists that you'd be fighting this time." He stood. "Good day to you. We really should catch up sometime."

And then she was alone. Asami buried her face in her hands. All she had to do was just let the state proceed. Korra would indeed be furious, but whether she could stop it herself was an open question. Everyone else considered Aang taking Ozai's bending an act of mercy. She'd be against the entire world. It really was in Asami's hands.

So what did she want to do? No, scratch that. She wanted to choke the life from Kuvira as she forced her to watch Hiroshi's death over and over again. What would be the right thing to do? Kuvira was a murderer. If not of her father, then of hundreds of other people. Didn't they deserve justice?This would be no heroic crusade against a monster Asami had done so much for this city, for the world. But taking on the Republic for the sake of that woman? It was too much.

 _And so you get your revenge without having to do much of anything. I call that a win._

"It's not revenge. It's just refusing to bleed myself dry to help someone I despise. Raiko has a right to do what he likes. It's the court handing down the sentence, not me. If they decide that Kuvira losing her bending is justice, who am I to say anything?"

But that wasn't what was going on, was it? Raiko wanted Kuvira to pay and he wanted to look good in front of the other nations. And Asami…Asami wanted Kuvira to pay too. Justice hardly mattered, even if she could nod gravely along with the rest of the city. She would have her blood.

As her father had wanted blood. But the alternative was exhausting and humiliating herself for Kuvira's sake. Kuvira's. Asami was a good person, sure, but that kind of compassion belonged to distant long-dead Air Nomads. Not to people like her.

 _Being good is never easy, Asami._ The voice sounded different this time, like her mother. _Sometimes it requires the kind of fight you can win with your glove. And sometimes it requires a fight with yourself. It requires more than you think you can bear. Do it anyway._

"You don't ask for much, do you?"

But her mother or her conscience or whatever was right. She had promised herself never to become her father. Never to let hatred and grief drive her actions. She just had to find the strength to follow through. Asami pressed a button on her desk. "Tell Legal I need to talk to them now. We're about to have a fight on our hands. And tell Korra I'm coming to see her. We're going to need those drinks."


End file.
